CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Currently, if you are renewing an existing membership record that is in the grace status, Civi handles the renewal by extending the end date for the record by the configured membership period.

But if the status is expired, Civi treats the membership like a new record. The problem is that it doesn't actually create a new record -- it takes the existing record, resets the *start* date and sets the end date according to the period length. The *join* date remains the same.

I think the general concept of handling expired records differently is appropriate -- while they may have renewed, you want to capture the fact that there was a lag in their membership. The problem is that the current functionality loses important membership history. Example:

John has a membership record starting Jan 1 2006, ending Dec 31 2009. The membership period is fixed, Jan-Dec, 1 yr. The grace period is 1 month. So as of today's date, he is marked expired. A staff person receives his check for renewal today, clicks renew, enters the details. That record is now changed to: start date = Jan 1 2010, end date Dec 31 2010. In other words -- the fact that he had a membership record in good standing from Jan 1 2006 is lost. We still have the original join date on file, so his "length" of membership can be construed from that. But in general, I think this is not a good way to handle historical records.

I'm not sure the best solution. One option is to create a brand new membership record -- so the old one (2006-2009) is preserved, and the new one starts with 2010. While it won't completely capture the details of what happened, an admin may still construe that there was a gap between the prior and subsequent records. Really, the only thing I don't like about this option is that the contact will be given a status of new, and depending on the organization, may receive undeserved benefits as a new member, when in fact they are an expired-renewing member.

Another option is to provide people the option. IF renewing an existing membership, AND IF status = expired, ASK if the user wants to create a new record or renew the existing record. IF renewing the existing record, I think it should act as a standard renewal (start date is preserved, end date extended). I really don't think the start date should ever be changed.

Actually, a third option (probably the simplest) is don't have special handling for the expired member status at all. If a person chooses to renew a membership with expired status, it should act using the standard rules -- i.e. just extend the end date by the period length, as with any other renewal. This may be the best option, as the user's actions are taken at face value -- i'm choosing to renew a membership, thus act accordingly.

I generally tell people during training that they should create a new member record if there's been a lapse in membership. So if a person chooses not to renew in 2010, but rejoins in 2011, that should be a new record, detached from prior, so as to record the lapse.

Peter, I think it does have a renew option for expired - we hacked the dashboard so that pending WOULDN'T have a renew option ( renewing a pending membership could make the membership appear longer than it really is?).